John Glenn to Go Back Into Orbit, at Age 77

By FRANCIS X. CLINES

Published: January 16, 1998

Correction Appended

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15—
In a wonder of aeronautics and geriatrics, Senator John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, has won his campaign to be rocketed back into space at the age of 77, space officials and experts said today.

The news that the spry, ever ebullient hero of the pioneer American space program will go back into orbit for about 10 days this fall -- after his 77th birthday in July -- was an instant source of coast-to-coast smiles of amazement today among Americans who cherish the memory of Mr. Glenn's three-orbit ride 36 years ago.

In that historic flight, Mr. Glenn's image of mid-American modesty and freckle-faced mastery of his space mission was an instant restorative for national morale badly eroded in the cold war years by the Soviet Union's alarming superiority in early space flight.

In his new trip, Senator Glenn won a place aboard the Discovery shuttle flight in October in the name of partaking in experiments about space and the aging process, space experts said.

The news was not officially confirmed. But space experts being briefed today by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the flight would be announced on Friday at a midday news conference confirming that Mr. Glenn would be sent into space again, this time as the oldest astronaut in history.

Although some critics have already voiced skepticism about the scientific justification for sending Mr. Glenn back into space, such criticism might not make much of an impression on people who fondly remember his pioneering mission in 1962.

''We think we have a pretty solid rationale for it,'' a senior NASA official said, noting that Mr. Glenn would attend the news conference.

The agency has lined up a half-dozen space medicine experts to discuss the issues surrounding Mr. Glenn's return to orbit.

Dr. John M. Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University and a NASA adviser, said today that the agency had given the flight an unambiguous thumbs up.

''I doubt that NASA would have gone out and solicited Senator Glenn,'' Dr. Logsdon said. ''But he has been able to make a case that has convinced them that he is qualified to fly and that there are benefits to having him do so.''

Senator Glenn, looking about as lithe, sparkle-eyed and confident as he was in his first go-round as an astronaut, came out of his Capitol office briefly as the news swept the capital and a throng of reporters gathered.

''I can understand there is a great deal of interest in this matter, but today I have no comment on it,'' he said, his mood seeming closer to merriment than despair. ''I look forward to discussing this in the future.''

For the Senator, who plans to close out his political career at the end of this year, the flight would be an enormous personal coup, for he has been a one-man lobby for his return to space flight for the past two years.

For the nation, his rocket trip will be a spiritual lark and a fresh sort of space adventure, by all the reactions of astonishment and pleasure that, initially, at least, seemed to overwhelm any expressions of concern and doubt that he can handle the flight.

''Why can't he?'' said Dr. Adrian LeBlanc, a medical physicist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. ''It did not occur to me to fly older people.''

Dr. LeBlanc, who studies how astronauts' muscle and bone react to spaceflight and sees no problem if Mr. Glenn is fit and has no serious medical problems, added, ''Age per se is probably not a contradiction.''

The oldest astronaut to fly in space was Dr. Story Musgrave, who was 61 years old when he made his sixth and final journey aboard the shuttle Columbia in 1996. On that flight, from Nov. 19 to Dec. 7, Dr. Musgrave completed his flight career after being told by NASA that he would not go up again. Before that, the oldest to fly was Vance Brand, who was 59 when he last flew in space in 1990.

Mr. Glenn, an Ohio Democrat who began his Senate career in 1974, would not be the first Senator to voyage in space. Senator Jake Garn of Utah, chairman of the space committee, wangled that honor. He made 109 orbits in 1985 and became so famously space-sick that his Senate nickname upon return to the Capitol cloakroom became Barfin' Jake.

Space shuttles often have a crew of six, but a seventh place can be easily added for the Senator, officials said. Mr. Glenn, who flies his own private plane between Washington and his home in Ohio, has for months been dismissing any doubts of whether he still has ''the right stuff,'' as described by Tom Wolfe in his book about the early space program.

The outpouring of relief and adulation was phenomenal after his three-orbit flight on Feb. 20, 1962. The first American to orbit Earth received a Broadway parade reminiscent of the one after Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight, 35 years before. Mr. Glenn and his party attended a play that night, ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,'' and the audience rose and cheered the sight of him. The cast had rewritten dialogue lines in the play to make proud jokes about the grand Glenn space flight. It was like a royal command performance.

''I think it's great,'' Michael D. McCurry, the White House press secretary, said of the word that Mr. Glenn would be weightless once more. Asked what President Clinton thought about the idea, Mr. McCurry said, ''He has the same affection for John Glenn that most Americans do.''

The news conference is certain to face questions about the risks involved in re-launching Mr. Glenn at his age -- 15 years beyond the grounding age of some far more experienced NASA pilots. There also are questions about whether there are lingering effects from the bathroom fall that troubled Mr. Glenn's sense of balance early in his political career.

Analysts are sharply divided on the move's worth. The scientific justification of using Mr. Glenn to study aging in space has little or no merit, some say, adding that the shuttle system is too unreliable and dangerous for national joy rides. Others disagree, and some experts applaud the move for its sheer boldness.

''I wish they would not confuse the issue with all this foolishness about medical research,'' said John E. Pike, the director of space policy for the Federation of American Scientists, a private group in Washington.

''His big wish is getting fulfilled. John Glenn's first flight didn't have anything to do with science and this one doesn't either. Flying in space is about the right stuff.''

For the political groundlings the Senator will leave down here, undoubtedly there will be a guessing game as to precisely how Mr. Glenn mastered the politics at NASA and won his heart's delight. Some are already noting, for example, that the Senator has been the chief Democratic defender of President Clinton in the Republican Senate's inquiry into campaign finances.

But the case for Senator Glenn's cycling back to his roots in American space history is being described in terms far beyond earthly politics.

''He sounds wonderful,'' said Dr. Robert N. Butler, a specialist on aging at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine who spoke with Mr. Glenn today. ''He sounded very clear and determined and pleased that this decision would be made, and that he would have this opportunity to go again into space. It's an amazing story.''

Photos: Senator John Glenn of Ohio, 76, could be the oldest astronaut in space after a NASA mission this fall. Mr. Glenn spoke yesterday in Washington and is shown above in a photograph before his 1962 flight. (Photographs by The Associated Press)(pg. A10); John Glenn, astronaut, in the 60's (NASA), and yesterday at his Senate office. (Paul Hosefros/The New York Times)(pg. A1)

Correction: January 17, 1998, Saturday A caption yesterday with the continuation of an article about Senator John Glenn's plans to return to space as an astronaut misstated the date of a picture of him with a space vehicle in Washington. It was taken in 1987, not this week.